While parked at Mt Carmel Junction, we were close to the Eastern part of Zion National Park. My favorite hike in that part of the park is the Many Pools hike. I led 2 groups of WINs there on 2 different days.
It used to be a kind of "secret hike," but not so much anymore.
It's easy to see how it is named "Many Pools."
It rained before we went on the second day, and there were little waterfalls between the pools.
This is a very popular place for frogs, and their offspring. We only found what I thought was one frog, but was actually a mating pair when I looked at my photo.
We saw lots of frog eggs and tadpoles the first day, but they seemed to have been washed away the second day.
But this was the most interesting thing we found. We first thought this was a dead cricket with some black strings. But we soon realized that the strings were alive! Turns out they are Horsehair Worms, and use the cricket to get to the water. You can hear about this amazing relationship
here.
More pools! There is no official trail here, you just climb as far as you want, then turn around.
The second day group, captured by Jennifer.
If you want to do this hike, ask for directions at the Visitors Center, or go .9 miles east of the small tunnel. A great hike!
What a great post! Photos are wonderful and the YouTube story of the cricket and the horsehair worms is an excellent informative production.
ReplyDelete